Phiya Kushi's Blog: Musings on life and macrobiotics

Suicide Bombers

I just read this sad story from Reuters: “Suicide bomber attacks Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir“. It is sad in so many ways. The violence is sad. The deaths and waste of lives, including that of the bomber, is sad. The ideological insanity and failure to reason is sad. The conditions from which such actions arise are sad also. Essentially, the selfish greedy narrow-minded egotistical insane mind that has things like this continue is sad. The people who dream up of such things have a level of thinking that is lower than animals. Even the lowest of animals do not think of committing suicide attacks.

Kamikaze pilot about to crash into the USS Essex

Suicide bombers are, unfortunately, part of my heritage. My uncle, my mother’s older brother, was drafted into the Japanese Army during World War II and trained to become a Kamikaze Pilot. The tactic of using suicide missions became a practice toward the end of the war as a last desperate attempt to stop the approaching US fleet. It was a foolish attempt to hold on to a distorted sense of “honor” in the face of a lost cause. Towards the end of the war, with their manufacturing capabilities destroyed, the Japanese ran out of planes. Kamikaze pilots were then trained to become human suicide torpedoes to attack and sink ships. The day before my uncle was scheduled to attack a ship, the war ended. He was caught, put in a prisoner of war camp in China and later released. I believe he is still alive today and lives in the small home town in which he grew up in.

Anything that promotes suicide attacks is utter foolishness and insanity on every level of human existence. As a military and political strategy it is the most foolish thing anyone can think of and is a guarantee of failure. No wars were ever won by people killing themselves. As a religious and ideological statement it is the worst PR ever conceived. Suicide bombers in the name of Islam have only made many non-Muslims hate Islam as a religion. Religious and other leaders who promote suicide attacks are the most foolish people on earth as they only destroy themselves and their own causes by their thinking and strategy.

There is no “honor” in suicide. There is honor and dignity in old age. There is no honor in fighting a desperate and lost cause. There is honor and dignity in surrendering to save the life of even just one person be they friend or foe. All violence and oppression, regardless of source, breeds contempt and hatred. Surrender and passiveness creates sympathy, love and support. The peaceful exile of the Dalai Lama has garnered more support and sympathy for Tibet than any aggressive action could have achieved. The holocaust created world sympathy and support to the plight of the Jews while, on the other hand, oppressive action by Israeli forces in Palestine has only created contempt and hatred. Violence, oppression and aggressive action, no matter how small or in what form, always breeds contempt, mistrust and hatred. Surrender, yielding and acceptance always creates sympathy, support and love. Why is it not obvious to those tactless leaders who promote and encourage suicide missions?

Macrobiotic pioneer, George Ohsawa, was vehemently opposed to war and was jailed for his anti-war activities during World War II. One imperative message that he continued to promote to the brain-washed Japanese people during and long after the war ended is the idea of “non-credo” – meaning do not blindly believe in and follow any given and prevailing ideas. He adamantly encouraged and promoted individual free and original thinking. Today, as long as there continues to be violence and suicide missions, this message is worth repeating.

Together with free thought is “freedom of speech”, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Anything that limits free speech and free expression is oppressive and is a form of violence. It breeds contempt and hatred towards the oppressors, be they governments, religious fanatical leaders or corporations and businesses that use economic intimidation to silence people. All oppressive individuals, groups and entities that limit free thought and expression will not last and are on a path of self-destruction. Nature is free, creative, open, expressive and is unstoppable. Accepting and following nature is what macrobiotics is all about.

Attention Suicide Bombers!!! Think for yourself! Use your brains! Be free and original thinkers! Express your ideas! Share your creativity! Promote and celebrate the free thought, free speech and original creativity of others! Do not become spiritual, political, economic, mental and physical slaves of other people. Honor and cherish your life and the life others. Do not throw your life away for insane causes! Live a long and adventurous life! This was George Ohsawa’s anti-war message during World War II and this is the message of macrobiotics! Spread this message and let us live together as happy, free individuals in peace on this beautiful planet!

In Peace….Phiya

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I whole-heartedly agree with this article. I would also like to add that, particularly in the case of Middle Eastern suicide bombers, those countries who being occupied and feel that there are no other options have a tendency towards these extreme measures. Also, eating meat in a hot climate is not helping. I don’t know how those people even function. I would go crazy if I ate meat in the desert.

While I agree that war is stupid, I don’t agree that we should surrender to every lunatic country that attacks us. Georges also listed Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” as part of his reading list. Very much wisdom about how not to get into a war, but if you must ( for everything there is a season ) go to war, you should win. The second World War is a good example of a war that needed to be won by those who believed in freedom. Japan was a good example of a nation that had lost it’s way a long time before WWII. After Commander Perry scared the pants off the Japanese in 1853, they decided to become like the western powers and looked to the British and Americans for examples on just how to do that. By 1905 they had beaten a weaker Russian Navy with ships they bought from the British. It clearly went to their heads. As there weren’t any Indians around, like the British and Americans had, they attacked everyone to the west of them, and showed the world they too could be ruthless.
It would be interesting to know what their diet was that would lead them to be tried in Guam in 1946 with crimes that were so vile that the proceeding were kept secret until all the mothers of the Flyboy’s that were captured on Chichi Jima, were dead. It seems to me that Japan’s leaders were committing their entire country to suicide. The would put soldiers on Islands with no plans to ever take them off, and told them to fend for themselves. So the banzai charges that happened on many islands seemed almost preordained as they were never going to leave those islands anyway. It was clearly a matter of win or die. We are seeing this again in the Middle-East. There is no place for the Palestinians to go as no other country wants them. So they must either give up totally, or fight on. Want to bet on how that vote would go? One thing that might help is that when we give food aid to all the disaster areas of the world, we stop sending “White Rice” and other government surplus junk food. One would think that just bagging up Brown Rice would be cheaper anyway. Just a thought.